(Written by Power Pen on September 20, 2016 edited of the Green-feathered Parrot bird Macaw)

(Editorial) Unfortunately
it didn't work again to print the new Blog before our main person left Iran. But he had some good reasons which he surely will tell in another Blog. Our dear readers of the travel magazine
"Gravel travel" can enjoy reading about the travel
through Azerbaijan.

Power Pen (PP): Before we come to Azerbaijan. What did you celebrate shortly before that?

David Brandenberger (DB):
On the road from Tbilisi to Azer-baijan I reached my 12'000 km. But I had to work for this and drive a couple of
hundred meters up the Hill in the heat. The border was then reached again down near the river. It was easy to travel out of Georgia. The entry to Azerbaijan was slightly more difficult. The border is hermetically
protected and you feel, as you enter a maximum security jail. First all officials wanted to take a picture of me, and then I had to go to the interview. The Armenian stamp in my passport wasn't
quite liked by the officer. He wanted to allege, of course, that I had travelled to Karabakh, which for him would be a welcome reason to reject my entry. But I was not there and have taught him
clearly.

PP: Is Azerbaijan such a
controlled country?

DB: Not exactly, but
Armenia and Azerbaijan are in trouble for years on the
issue of Karabakh. Russia has promised both as their territory for some political reasons. It was an incident as well a few months ago.

PP: What was your impression of
Azerbaijan?

DB: I was so pleasantly
surprised. Although it is officially a Muslim State, I've rarely encountered women with headscarf or hijab. A lot of wine is produced in the semi-desert and I rarely have heard the call of a
muezzin to prayer. In(still yet)secular Turkey is it already different. But the mainly moderate Sunnite Islam is represented here. The main streets were still
in very good condition, only changed towards Iran. The people are also very helpful and friendly.

PP: Unless you had a bad
experience right at the beginning.

DB: The hotel was pretty
bad; cockroaches, sagging matt-resses and the worst were the registry. I had to do that if I'm staying longer than ten days in the country. I registered while in Agstafa at this hotel, but they
had not passed the form to the immigration office, although I asked three times by email.

PP: What was the result?

DB: I had to leave a day
later, the border guards sent me back. I had to go back to the last city again 40 kilometers, to an Office, which was somewhere in the middle of nowhere, for signing a form.

PP: Did you cycled all
back?

DB: No, with the Trike it
would have been too much, so I took the bus and taxi. The Officer there wanted pretty much money from me(300 Manat = approx. CHF 180)which I didn't have. As "an
alternative" they offered to send me for deport for a year, that was right with me. They ranged me a piece of paper on which I had to beg for deport. I then wrote the truth of the trouble with
the hotel and required deport, but begging is out of the question.

PP: Well, now you just enter in
the country. Which road did you take after Agstafa?

DB: I went straight to Ganja. But the police there showed me the wrong way to the
city and I got from a construction site to the next, cycling around the city. Three hours later I have then achieved my goal in a snail's pace and shaken. Next day the road led me to Aran with
beautiful views of Nagorno Karabakh. Then I took the turnoff to Mingachevir and I came in turn from a construction site to
the other again. I progress-ed on the dirt road only with 6 km/h. An Azerbaijani on the bike joined me and he was very annoying, but with my slow speed I couldn’t get rid of him. (Video)

PP: Were the streets so
bad?

DB: I caught probably all
minor roads in the country, which are now refreshed. After Mingachevir it was better again; the road was mostly flat and I made good progress. Only to find a shady spot at 42°C was slightly
difficult because under every shady tree hide already a herd of cows. When I hit the road to Ismailly, the way led into the mountains. At the first Hill, two men stopped me to take a picture. The
thermometer rose up to 51.5°C in the Sun; I melted like a cheese and they did not let me go until I got the phone number of a son of them which has a hotel. Fortunately, the road wasn’t too steep
and I came slowly higher into the Caucasus. After a long curving around the City I haven't found my accommo-dation and there the phone number helped me further. The "hotel" was rather a private
apartment high above the city on 750m and the guy was going to urge me chatting Swedish, because he apparently has a Swedish girlfriend.

PP: Very probably his
"girlfriend" doesn't know. You cycled then along the foothills of the Caucasus.

DB: It was an up and down;
up to 843m, down to 795m and then up to 900m - I thought, but the altimeter increased still further up to 1024m. A beautiful trail on the mountain ridge followed and then quickly down to 600m.
Now it started all over again and it was 47°C in the sun - shade wasn’t much available. After I had two short breaks I found a flat piece at 900m next to a fruit stand, to recover myself. Two
gifted melon wedges have recovered me again and soon I was then at 945m and after that raced down to Samaxi.

PP: You could have taken also
the flatter route down in the Valley, which would have been not so exhausting.

DB: Then I don’t have
something to lament about. I wanted to go in the vicinity to the mountains, to see other areas. By this I went also off having to go the same route twice.

PP: The next day began
funny.

DB: The receptionist of the
hotel asked whether I had some-

thing of the mini bar. I
then answered him; I got him a 100 Manat, if he even finds a mini bar in the room. But the journey was hard again, because the pass road led down to 600m, and then in several gradients up to
890m. During the subse-quent trip I had literally forced myself to brake for photos, because it was so nice to drive. At the next long climb, I was allowed to drive on the new paved Strip not to
block the traffic – this was for me even more beautiful. In the last down-

hill I then still
involuntarily broke the speed record and set it up to 55.6 km/h. Actually I never wanted to go so fast like that. Maybe that's why I got a police escort, which was driving behind me until
Baku.

PP: How was Baku for
you?

DB: Once again a big city,
but with a lovely labyrinthine old town to get lost. Therein I found also a hostel, only my Trike I had to park far away in an underground car park. In Baku, I got also easily my Iran visa for
€50(plus € 2
Commission), got the
Tajikistan visa by email and applied for the Uzbek visa. In addition to these formalities, I strolled through the old town, made a sketch of the Flame towers, visited some museums and enjoyed a few bike free days. Only the excursion to the burning mountain(Yanar Dag - not Brandenberger!)was not so
impressive. But I met Claire again by chance at a night; she then went by ship across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.

PP: But you left in direction
south.

DB: In Qobustan was the end
of the journey. After I visited the Museum of early history and wanted to go up to the Petro-glyphs, I heard a weird noise. An axis in the trailer was broken; I stood in the middle of the
semi-desert and couldn’t go any further.

PP: That is terrible!

DB: I thought as well, also
my visa expired in a few days. To send spare parts wasn’t a solution. But the employees at the Museum, especially Rafael, cared pathetically for me. The standard type axes here were all too thick
and no others to get. There was a factory on the edge to the next village, which melted up scrap metal and processed further. A worker there produced a new axis for me in four hours for 10
Manat(approx. CHF
6).We had built in this again
at 23:00 and I could camp next to the Guards House. To bypass the wait, they took me to a trip to the mud volcanoes. So I came to night-time views, which are rare and I couldn’t have gone there
anyway. Rafael guided on the next morning a free tour to the Petroglyphs.

PP: It seems you were stuck at
the right place.

DB: I told you that I’m in
God's hands. I only wasn’t so relaxed, anyway. Two days later came the next disaster. In the middle of the road, the gear cable blocked and I could only drive in the highest gear. Fortunately,
the road was flat, but when I wanted to replace the cable, it ripped and got stuck in the sheath. In the next village we were able by joining forces of the locals to operate the cable out and
assemble a new. But the sheath was now quite damaged and blocked the new cable into the 5th gear. So I was driving then the next day and two cities further until I found a bike shop
which could replace a new cable sheath. This one was too short, but it was enough for now.

PP: So that's enough for now
also with this blog. How the story with the gear cable sheath and your entry in the Iran will go on, is described in the next blog. Meanwhile, there have also been uploaded the videos of Georgia. The videos of Armenia and Azerbaijan will follow in the next few days(hopefully).Oh Macaw, you must not refer that now as a
slot of you in green! I wrote a comma here!